Friday, September 4, 2015

"Netflix in the Philippines?! No way? Yes way!" was my very eloquent thought process when I first heard about HOOQ from attending the CBC's first anniversary Black Party. They were one of the sponsors at the event and were just as lively and excited as we were, to our delight. They hosted a few games and gave us prizes (even a chance to win a few HOOQ shirts I wasn't able to get :( )

"HOOQ is a gateway to a world of unlimited entertainment. With just one
app, you can stream, download and enjoy thousands of movies and TV
series. All from your phone, laptop or tablet." *

The first thing I noticed when I logged in (with the free 1 month subscription, thank you very much, HOOQ) was the mixed feature of both Hollywood and Filipino films. As they explained the platform to me, I was expecting a selection of American movies only so it was great to find out that they also had Filipino movies and a selection of Filipino TV series in their movie library.

Luckily, I had a fairly new smartphone to work with so it could easily cover the tech specs needed to smoothly run the app. When I chose Mall Cop and started playing the movie, it was awesome that it was in great quality without any hiccups. The sound was good and the interface was familiar enough to understand.

I'm still waiting for the day they have recent movies and series in their selection as they only have shows from the early 2000s or earlier. A great feature to add too would be to let the user search a specific movie, or category: be they Hollywood or Filipino productions. Right now, you can pick between TV Series or Movies, and everything is mixed between the two, from genre to production, so a better filter would be great as the selections grow.

Considering all that, the pricing is quite fair especially if you're a big fan of Filipino telenovelas and the fact that you could pre-download your favorite movies was another plus for me. Personally, I'm excited to see what more HOOQ can grow into as they've tapped a service not many previously have had access to. Maybe they can venture into featuring live stream videos of sports or international events? Who knows? Excited for all the possibilities!